Included in the 2016 amendments to the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is a one-time reporting requirement for industry, designed to bring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) list of chemicals in commerce—referred to as the “TSCA Inventory”—up to date. The EPA wants to remove any chemicals from the TSCA Inventory that are no longer made or imported into the U.S.
Shortening the current list of more than 85,000 chemicals will help the EPA to meet its principal new obligation under the TSCA amendments—to prioritize and review the safety of all remaining chemicals currently in commerce under their circumstances of use, and to impose risk management controls (anything from warnings to complete bans) where it finds unreasonable risks. The new chemical testing and risk evaluation process will proceed chemical-by-chemical over a long period of time, and many companies may not be affected for several years. But the chemical reporting obligation (TSCA Inventory Reset) will affect nearly every company, including many companies often exempt from other kinds of EPA reporting.
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